Comics artist Mark Sable detained for Unthinkable acts

By Ian Randal Strock May 13, 2009

Boom! Studios sends word that comics writer Mark Sable was detained by TSA security guards at Los Angeles International Airport this past weekend because he was carrying a script for a new issue of his comic miniseries Unthinkable. Sable was detained while traveling to New York for a debut party at Jim Hanley’s Universe today.

The comic series follows members of a government think tank that was tasked with coming up with 9/11-type ‘unthinkable’ terrorist scenarios that now are coming true. (See this article for more on the series.)

Sable wrote of his experiences: ‘Flying from Los Angeles to New York for a signing at Jim Hanley’s Universe Wednesday (May 13th), I was flagged at the gate for ‘extra screening’. I was subjected to not one, but two invasive searches of my person and belongings. TSA agents then ‘discovered’ the script for Unthinkable #3. They sat and read the script while I stood there, without any personal items, identification or ticket, which had all been confiscated.’

‘The minute I saw the faces of the agents, I knew I was in trouble. The first page of the Unthinkable script mentioned 9/11, terror plots, and the fact that the (fictional) world had become a police state. The TSA agents then proceeded to interrogate me, having a hard time understanding that a comic book could be about anything other than superheroes, let alone that anyone actually wrote scripts for comics.’

‘I cooperated politely and tried to explain to them the irony of the situation. While Unthinkable blurs the line between fiction and reality, the story is based on a real-life government think tank where a writer was tasked to design worst-case terror scenarios. The fictional story of Unthinkable unfolds when the writer’s scenarios come true, and he becomes a suspect in the terrorist attacks.’

‘In the end, I feel my privacy is a small price to pay for educating the government about the medium.’

Source: http://sfscope.com/2009/05/comics-artist-mark-sable-detai.html

Autistic child taken from school in handcuffs

COEUR D’ALENE — A Ponderay mom was left outraged when school officials ordered her autistic 8-year-old daughter handcuffed and taken from the school in a police car.

Outside her Ponderay home, 8-year-old Evelyn Towry, in her pink boots and favorite sweatshirt explains why she’s now suspended from school.

“Because I was trying to leave and they hold me down,” Evelyn said.

Evelyn is a third grader at Kootenai Elementary and has Asperger’s Syndrome, a high functioning form of Autism. On Friday she started to act out.

Abolish government police

Before they kill us all.

Thankfully, a potentially deadly situation in southern Maryland was averted this week when the state’s attorney called off a state police SWAT team before it killed another civilian who was threatening or harming no one.

The nutshell: A woman allegedly calls police around 10:00 p.m. saying her son has been shot somewhere in the vicinity of her house. Police arrive at the house and see a woman alone holding a weapon. Police doubt the “viability of the call” based on the woman’s behavior but nevertheless proceed to erect a barricade around the property and evacuate nearby homes. Maryland State Police Special Tactical Assault Team Element (S.T.A.T.E.) “was to arrive on the scene at about 11:50 p.m.”

Law Enforcement: This Week’s Corrupt Cops Stories

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/561/police_drug_corruption

A trio of bad apples from Arizona, including a DARE officer with a penchant for sexual assault, made the news this week, while the city of Berwyn, Illinois, found itself in a bit of hot water over the way it used asset forfeiture funds. Let’s get to it:

In Nogales, Arizona, a former Nogales DARE officer was convicted last Friday on numerous charges related to unwanted sexual contact with young women. Ramon Borbon, 40, was convicted of sexual abuse and obstructing a criminal investigation in the case of a 16-year-old girl whom he forced to touch him inappropriately and threatened to stop her from going to authorities. He was also convicted of sexual assault and kidnapping charges in the case of a 19-year-old woman for restraining and raping her. He was in uniform during both incidents. In a motion ruling during trial, Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge James Soto wrote that Borbon has “a character trait which gives rise to an aberrant sexual propensity” and that he appeared to have “identified young, vulnerable females with a history of psychological and/or substance abuse problems that are less likely to come forward and if they do, are less likely to be considered credible.” There are also at least four other complaints of sexual abuse against Borbon. The police department had earlier found them to be “without merit.” He will be sentenced December 12.